PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News
Daily News Editorial
Philadelphia Daily News
GUILTY AS charged (although only on one of three counts): Msgr. William J. Lynn.
Guilty but not charged: Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua.
In a watershed decision in Philadelphia on Friday, a jury convicted (for the first time ever!) a Catholic Church official of child endangerment for taking part in a cover-up of priest abuse.
In a breathtaking coincidence, eight hours later and a few hundred miles away, former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was found guilty of 43 counts of child sexual abuse. The swift decision, which followed a trial that got much more publicity than the Philadelphia proceedings, understandably dominated the rest of the day’s news cycle.
The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office managed to prove only one count against Lynn, the former archdiocesan secretary of clergy, to the jury’s satisfaction. Lynn was acquitted of another child-endangerment charge and a charge of conspiracy. (The jury deadlocked on both charges of abuse and conspiracy against the Rev. James J. Brennan.)
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